Wild West

The Wild West was a period of American history that lasted from roughly 1865 to 1895. The period, which took place on the frontier of the American West, was marked by lawlessness in America's unincorporated territories, cattle drives, westward settlement, the proliferation of immoral businesses such as bordellos and saloons, the rise of outlaw gangs, and conflicts with Native Americans. The Wild West has been immortalized by the "cowboy" image, which represented rugged individualism and survival.

Background
The "Wild West" period followed the westward expansion promoted by "Manifest Destiny", which saw the United States acquire vast amounts of territory in the Mexican-American War, the Gadsden Purchase, and through several Indian wars. These newly-conquered lands were organized into "territories", American lands that were not yet granted statehood due to their low populations and their lack of infrastructure. In 1862, the US government passed the first of the "Homestead Acts", which opened up millions of acres of land in the West to settlement. Any adult who had never taken up arms against the US government could apply, including women, immigrants, and (after 1866) African-Americans. These laws effectively gave free land to those who were willing to farm it, and also gave them the rights to gold if they mined it. After the California Gold Rush, many immigrants and settlers arrived in the West with the objective of mining and keeping their goald. Promises of prosperity led to waves of immigration to the sparsely populated West.

The new territories lacked a strong political infrastructure, however, and the West became a lawless region in which settlers would have to brave Native American conflicts, outlaw shootouts, train and bank robberies, hazardous stagecoach journeys, and the stifling desert heat. Following the American Civil War's end in 1865, many former Confederate "bushwhackers" found themselves unemployed, and several of them, including Jesse James, became outlaws. Many southerners would become outlaws, while many northerners would become lawmen, continuing the divisions created by the Civil War.

Cowboys
Cowboys were animal herders who tended cattle in ranches, typically on horseback. They were nicknamed "cowboys" because of their herding of livestock, including cows, sheep, goats, chickens, and other animals. In 1867, the first cattle drive from Texas up the Chisholm Trail arrived at the rail yards of Abilene, Kansas, beginning a series of drives. These drives saw horse-mounted cowboys move herds of cattle long distances to market, and, from 1866 to 1895, 10,000,000 cattle were herded from Texas to railheads in Kansas for shipments to stockyards in Chicago and points east, where they would be slaughtered and turned into meat. Due to the major role that cattle drives had in the Wild West, the cowboy tending to a herd of cattle became the worldwide iconic image of the Wild West.

Ranching also played a major role in the American West, with cowboys living on ranches with their herds of livestock, as well as with their families. At ranches, animals were bred and nourished before cattle drives took place, and the settler families were able to sustain themselves from selling their livestock, as well as by growing or slaughtering their own food. In 1874, Joseph Gilden invented barbed wire, revolutionizing ranching, as animals could now be prevented from escaping by barbs.

Lawmen
Lawmen were the guardians of the law in the Wild West, including Sheriffs and Marshals. They were responsible for enforcing the law in the frontier towns and settlements, and they often formed posses of townspeople to assist them in protecting and defending the law and innocent townspeople. Lawmen typically wore golden stars to identify them as sheriffs or Marshals, and they were rarely shot by outlaws, as killing a lawman essentially meant a death sentence. By the early 1900s, lawmen had virtually eliminated the outlaws in shootouts or by capturing and hanging many of them.

Location
The Wild West occurred in the lands west of the Mississippi River, including the territories acquired by the United States in the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo following the war with Mexico. Hotspots of outlaw activity included Dodge City in Kansas, Santa Fe in New Mexico, Deadwood in South Dakota, and Tombstone in Arizona. The unsettled lands west of the Mississippi lacked law and order for decades; the Great Plains states saw fierce fighting between the white settlers and the Native American tribes, while the border territories along the Mexican border were occasionally the site of raids by Mexican banditos or local tribes such as the Apache, Navajo, and Comanche. The Wild West shrunk in size as the US government incorporated many of its territories as states, and, with Arizona's incorporation in 1912, all of the Western territories had become states with ample law enforcement.

Mexico
The Mexican frontier was just as dangerous as the American frontier, and it could be argued that, during the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920, it was even more so. The lack of a defended border allowed for easy travel between the two countries, with horse riders being able to cross the Rio Grande over wooden bridges or over railroad bridges without hindrance. Mexican outlaws, known as banditos, would occasionally raid across the border and engage in robberies and shootouts. In Mexico, it was common for banditos to engage in highway robbery, to steal payroll wagons, or to create gang hideouts full of outlaws. During the Mexican Revolution, civil warfare between the Mexican Army and revolutionary Rebeldes further destabilized the Mexican border states, leading to even more violence. This allowed for banditos such as Pancho Villa and Javier Escuella to attack the American border, and for American outlaws to interfere with the revolution in Mexico. Lawlessness in Mexico would continue for years due to the lack of an effective law enforcement agency and poor economic conditions, but the end of the revolution and the improvement of policing helped to tame the border region.

Native Americans
Native Americans, as the original inhabitants of the continent, played a major role in the period. The Native Americans were initially peaceful towards the settlers, as they sought to avoid conflict and continue tending to their open lands. However, the rapid increase in the number of settlers led to whites outnumbering the natives, and the US government, through several unfair treaties, forced the natives to give up their lands and move west. Eventually, this led to conflict between the settlers and the Indians, as the natives fought back against encroaching settlers. There were numerous wars, including the Comanche Wars, Colorado War, Red Cloud's War, Great Sioux War, Nez Perce War, and Apache War, all of which would ultimately result in the Native American tribes being forced onto reservations, many of them in the Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma.

Outlaws
The Wild West was famous for being an age of outlaws, who often operated from bases in the wilderness and opposed, attacked, or disrupted the fragile institutions of new settlements. The majority of outlaws preyed on banks, trains, and stagecoaches, which they would rob and distribute the money among themselves. Some ex-Confederates became outlaws after the end of the Civil War, others took advantage of the wilderness and the lawlessness of the frontier to enrich themselves at the expense of others, and others migrated to the frontier to escape prosecution for crimes elsewhere. Famous outlaws included Billy the Kid, Belle Starr, Bill Doolin, Black Bart, Dalton Brothers, Jesse James, Frank James, William "Curly Bill" Brocius, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, almost all of whom were either killed in shootouts or hanged for their crimes. By 1899, the age of outlaws was almost at an end, as almost all of them had been killed, arrested, or pardoned. The incorporation of America's western territories led to the establishment of better police forces, and outlaws, who were already uncommon figures, practically vanished until the Great Depression era.

Pioneers
A major feature of the Wild West was the influx of settlers, also known as "pioneers", into the newly-acquired territories. Initially, many of these settlers came from the East Coast of the United States, and they were descended from the original British settlers. However, they were followed by waves of Scots-Irish and German immigrants, among other groups. The arrival of immigrants helped with the development of thriving outposts into new towns, and civilization spread rapidly into the wild frontier as more settlers arrived.

Native American tribes in the region included the Sioux, Pawnee, Cheyenne, Crow, Sauk, Apache, Navajo, Comanche, Nez Perce, Shoshone, Paiute, Blackfoot, and Kiowa, among others. These tribes mostly fought on horseback with either bows or rifles, having acquired both horses and rifles through trade with the Europeans. The natives were often defeated by the technologically-superior Americans, but they were victorious in Red Cloud's War in 1867 and at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. The Americans often perpetrated atrocities against the Indians, including the Sand Creek massacre, but they often portrayed the Indians as savages and as uncivilized. The Shawnee chief Cheeseekau famously said, "When a white army battles Indians and wins, it is called a great victory, but if they lose it is called a massacre."

Rustlers
Cattle rustling was a major issue in the Wild West, in which criminals would steal cattle. During the 1840s, the Apache, Comanche, and Navajo Indians took advantage of Mexico's weakness by undertaking large-scale raids hundreds of miles deep into the country to steal livestock for their own use and to supply an expanding market in America. These raids left thousands dead, and the lives of many northern Mexicans were ruined; northern Mexico's demoralized population offered little opposition to the Americans during their invasion in 1846. During the American Civil War, the Mexican government was accused of supporting the habit of Mexicans rustling American cattle, and American rustlers did the same in Mexico. Rustling was held to be a serious crime, and vigilantes often hanged captured rustlers. With the advent of barbed wire and ranches and the decline of the open range system, rustling became less common, as livestock were now guarded in ranches.